Fractal: The Next Generation?

mikeyg said:
The FM3 with an FC-6 is in the cost territory of the Helix Floor, the Kemper Stage, and the upcoming Quad Cortex.

Fractal, being a smaller company, definitely doesn't have the financial resources of a Line6 (Yamaha) to turn out multiple form factors of their flagship product. Look what they've cranked out: The Helix Floor, LT, Stomp, Stomp XL AND the POD Go.

I'm kinda curious what happens with the QC, with a Profiler and a modeler in one unit. Unless they are about 100% equally good, one is bound to lose support. My bet is that the Profiling wins out, because their modeling is no where close to FRACTAL in terms of tweakability.
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In Europe the FM3 + FC6 is actually more expensive than a Kemper Stage, Helix Floor or Quad Cortex by 266 euros (using Thomann pricing with Finnish VAT of 24%). The FC6 at 599 euros is just way too expensive when Line6 Helix Control (equivalent of the FC12) is almost half the price.

Line6 was able to make all the other units after they put in the time to make a unified firmware that works with small modifications on all of their devices so they can update all of them in tandem, leading to far less development cost. Stomp is basically half a Helix when it comes to its DSP and I am not sure what the POD Go uses but I would expect a fairly compatible DSP. Fractal has two different DSPs to work with so I would expect their development costs for each are larger but considering how fast some of the Axe-Fx 3 features got ported to the FM3 it seems to be an easier process than Axe-Fx 2 vs AX8.

I think you overstate people's love for the Fractal level of tweakability. Most don't use the advanced features and probably like the idea of having them more than actually using them. I went with tube amps and Helix for a few years and don't miss the extra tweakability at all. There are other features that are cool but the amp block advanced tweaks are not that important. Now that I have a FM3 I still don't see the power supply etc pages becoming a regular part of dialing in a tone.

QC will have more profiles no matter what simply because 3rd parties can make them. I do hope NeuralDSP puts in the effort to keep adding amp models but at the same time I don't care if there's anywhere near as many as Fractal. I'd rather have less but unique amp models rather than a million Marshall variants and users crying for more "just so you have it". One of the cool things about the QC is that the profiling can be used to fill in the gaps and satisfy the people asking for more. For example Fryette amps are underrepresented on pretty much everything and even Fractal has just the Deliverance. Well, on QC someone can just do profiles of the others and while you lose some control you still get to use that amp.
 
laxu said:
Most don't use the advanced features and probably like the idea of having them more than actually using them. I went with tube amps and Helix for a few years and don't miss the extra tweakability at all. There are other features that are cool but the amp block advanced tweaks are not that important.
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True, but the power of changing things like the impedance curve, tonestack type, tonestack location, negative feedback, and tube types in an amp can dramatically change the sound and feel of an amp.
 
@laxu i don’t do a ton of deep tweaking either, and I don’t know whether the deep editing features are used many. None of us do, not even Cliff.
 
laxu said:
I think you overstate people's love for the Fractal level of tweakability. Most don't use the advanced features and probably like the idea of having them more than actually using them.
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The tweak ability of Fractal products does not always imply one is using the advanced parameters. The range of the controls and the way they interact on the Ideal page alone allows for more tweak ability than the Helix or HX Stomp. The advanced parameters are there if you want to deep dive but using just the 'basic' controls can yield a wide range of great tones from just one amp.

I spent a couple of hours trying to get a good Mat.....ess tone for a friend on an HX Stomp over the weekend and found its controls very limiting, especially after using the AX8, FM3 and Axe III for the past few years. With the HX, it seems that I ended up settling on a tone rather than being satisfied with the tone.
 
I had my FM3 plugged into my California Tweed in 4CM. I was trying to kinda match the CT’s tone (preamp) and feel with an FM3 model into the CT power section. I didn’t quite nail the tone (I only spent maybe 30 minutes) but getting the feel right—the initial bloom/compression or whatever it is with—with just the amp block was only possible using the advanced features. I’m not quite sure it’s 100% there but it’s close.
And I was definitely wishing for a tone match block. Might’ve made it much easier.
 
unix-guy said:
Many of the people who bought an Axe Fx III and FC-12 would opt for an all-in-one floor unit instead.
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Quite possibly. I guess it depends if it actually had 12 switches. That would be a very large and heavy floor unit I'm guessing (if it had the same horsepower as a III) Anyways, who knows. Many possibilities and price points etc..
 
wcfieldskx said:
Maybe not for you, but generally in this market that's quite expensive for the average person I would think.
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Youre not wrong in general of course, but there are tons of folks on this forum who have setups that are in that ballpark or higher. Fractal products kinda tend to live in the higher rent district I think. Quality isn’t cheap.
 
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